Alphabet's robotaxi company has closed a $5bn term loan, its first borrowing, with PIMCO, Blackstone and Sixth Street leading a lender list that spans bond funds and private credit. The deal started at more than $3bn and grew.
Treasury has issued the first penalty under its programme policing US investment in Chinese AI, chips and quantum computing. The company fined is the parent of Plug and Play, and the deal was a small stake in a Shanghai robotics company that nobody told Washington about.
Falling integration costs and capable perception models are bringing automation to mid-sized manufacturers that could never afford it before.